Do girls dream of electric Mareep?
by IndigoMagpie
Summary: Follow me and my electric fluff ball through a world filled with wonderful companions, friendly Pokemon and friends. Also, lots of fire breathing monsters. And evil people controlling those monsters. Not to mention all the death. And murder. Maybe I'm in over my head...
1. Broken Pedestals

**Chapter One ~ Broken Pedestals**

A trainers first Pokemon is one of the most important aspects of a Pokemon trainers life. Traditionally, they were gifted one of three designated 'starters', though many choose to attempt to catch their own or are given a Pokemon from friends or family.

I wanted my starter to be special, to be something unique and powerful. Something that would be the start of an amazing team with great capabilities. I lived in Sinnoh, and the starters there (Piplup, Chimchar and Turtwig), though strong, didn't meet the standards I had set for my future team. So instead I'd turned to my parents. I'd drawn up a list of possible starters for my parents; Dratini, Beldum, Larvitar ~ anything that could be strong and powerful. Fire breathing was a bonus. I was determined to get the starter of my dreams and, as my brother Jay was an experienced Pokemon breeder, I felt I had higher than average chance of this happening. I mean, my parents had said no to every single starter I had suggested, but I was sure Jay would pull through for me.

"Here you go dear; we even placed it in a special premiere ball just for you!" My heart raced as my mother handed me the white, red rimmed pokeball. We were stood outside in the garden, where we had just been celebrating my 18th birthday and the arrival of my trainer ID and Pokedex. My 18th had actually been a couple days earlier, but my ID and Pokedex had been delayed so we'd put off the celebrations for a few days.

Oh boy! Here it is, I finally find out which Pokemon is going to be the start to the worlds strongest team. I can see it now, me with a Dragonite, proudly defeating the elite 4 and eventually, the champion herself, Cynthia. Sky the Dragonite and Lilly Robinett, the strongest Pokemon and trainer team to exist, more powerful than Cynthia and her famed Garchomp.

Pressing the release button on the pokeball I watch as the red energy slowly forms my first Pokemon. Four blue stubby legs attached to a cloud of cream coloured wool. A thick tail with an orange sphere on the end. A blue face with two round, cone like ears.

In other words, a Mareep.

In other words, the destruction of all my hopes and dreams.

The dream-destroyer looked at me lazily, before lowering its head to graze on the grass. It didn't seem all that enthusiastic about becoming the worlds strongest Pokemon. It didn't seem all that enthusiastic about, well, anything.

"See dear, isn't it cute?" Sure, if a destroyer of dreams can be described as cute. Ignoring my mother, I reached forward to stroke the Pokemon, and it acknowledged me with a slow blink, leaning ever so slightly into my hand. Okay, so it was fluffy. So obviously it was cute but I couldn't exactly see Cynthia's famed Garchomp shivering with fear at a cloud on legs.

"It's not just any old Mareep" said Jay, looking rather mareepish himself, "I've bred it a special move; it knows Charge, which strengthens electric type attacks."

This meant my plan to become champion needed some reworking. Maybe I could trade the Mareep for an upgrade at the next town over? But who would trade a battle Pokemon for a Mareep of all things? Perhaps I could dye it's wool pink and trade it off as a shiny... Now there's an idea...

Still, the little Mareep was actually kinda adorable, and it's generally unapproved off the give away your starter Pokemon. Okay then, a Mareep was fine! I would just have to use my exceptional training skills to make it the worlds most powerful Ampharos! All I needed to do was find those exceptional trainer skills. That should be easy enough...

right?

Authors Note: Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed it, and choose to follow the story as it progresses! Reviews are really appreciated, particularly ones that give constructive criticism. I'm doing this to improve my creative writing skills, so it's really important to me that I get feed back. Hope to see you back soon! I plan on updating this story weekly if I can, so you should see regular updates. Let me know what you think of my starter Pokemon; I wanted something unspectacular, to fight against the tropes of OP starters some fan fictions have. I chose today give it an egg move and a premiere ball because I felt that families would go to some extent to make the starter special, even if it is a plain Mareep. Now I just need to name it...


	2. Harsh Beginnings

**Chapter Two ~ Harsh Beginnings**

I settled on the name Bo for my new Mareep, named after Little Bo Peep, my favourite nursery rhyme as a kid. As big as my initial disappointment was, I soon grew attached to Bo. She was friendly, and loved to cuddle (admittedly I did too, even if it meant my hair stood on end from the static). Unfortunately she didn't seem to have the thirst for battle I had hoped my starter would. Indeed her most aggressive act so far was shocking me awake when I refused to let my alarm clock defeat me.

After a few more days at home, packing and saying goodbye to friends and distant family I eventually set off on my journey. I learnt a lot in my first few weeks of traveling. Lesson number one was that skirts were next to useless, and I had to become a lot less fashion conscious (a lesson that took me three broken pairs of high heels to learn. To be fair, you always see the trainers on TV dressed up all fancy).

Lesson number two was that I loved picking fights with Starley. My Mareeps Thunder Shock was a godsend and I felt slightly over powered as we picked fights with every Starley we could. It wasn't long before we were knocking them out with one hit. I was now convinced that Mareep was the perfect starter. My Pokemon would go underestimated, only for it to be revealed to be a one of a kind. The top percentage of Mareep. As an Ampharos it would go unbeaten and unrivalled. Undefeatable.

I should have known I'd get a reality check. That was lesson number three. Don't trust strangers.

I'd just finished packing my sleeping bag in the early morning, hoping to reach Sandgem Town by the end of the day. Bo was slowly grazing as I did so. That was one positive about a Mareep; so long as there was grass, I needn't spend as much money on Pokemon food.

"Hey"

Me and Bo looked up in unison to see a stranger approaching.

"How can I help you?" I answered back, warily. I couldn't help but notice he had six pokeballs attacked to his belt. I silently prayed to Mew that he didn't want to challenge me to a battle. On the one hand my ego wouldn't let me say no, on the other I didn't fancy having to pay out half my cash.

"I'm looking for a battle", Dammit, "I don't suppose you'd be interested?" He asked. He seemed friendly enough, but it was obvious from his stance that he was far more confident, and experienced, than I was.

"I'm alright, thanks" I said, trying to sound as confident as possible; as if I was just merely disinterested rather than inept at battling.

"Sure, no problem" he said with a smile. "You new to training?"

"Newish", I said. Then I made my big mistake.

"It's just me and Bo at the moment. We started off last month."

The man nodded, smiled, and took a step towards me.

Then he drew out the knife.

For a moment everything froze. It's strange; I was prepared for all kinds of horrors on my Pokemon journey. I'd heard the stories of dead children when the trainer age was only 10, I'd seen gym challenges gone wrong, I'd even seen Pokemon fight to the death in an attempt to defeat the elite four. But I wasn't prepared for human violence. For a knife of all things.

Luckily for me, Bo was a little more prepared. With agility I'd never seen her demonstrate before, she bolted towards the man, her wool glowing a faint yellow as she used Charge to gain power. There was an audible crack as her skull hit his ribcage and the man let out a low grunt, gripping onto Bo for balance.

Then he drove the knife into her side.

Bo let out a pained scream. Her scream pierced the mist inside my head and suddenly I was moving, charging towards the man. Bo's wool was quickly turning red with the blood. Then the air sizzled with electricity as Bo let off a Thunder Shock. The man yelped and stumbled backwards, reaching for his pokeball as he did so.

"Bite!" The man yelled as red energy formed a Houndoom. It took a second for the Houndoom the register what was happening, but it soon dashed to attack Bo, sinking his teeth into the wool around Bo's neck. The Houndoom shook his head, and with a sinking in my stomach I realised it was going for the kill.

Thinking fast I grabbed Bo's pokeball from off my belt and clicked the return button. Bo disappeared in a blaze of light and the Houndoom looked confused for a second at the disappearance of its pray. At least Bo was safe, she had to be. She was still alive when I recalled her, and the pokeball should keep her stable for some time. I hoped.

"Wrong move" said the man. Then he whistled.

The Houndoom moved towards me at a speed I could barely comprehend. Suddenly it was tackling me to the ground, its jaws going for my neck. I raised my arms to defend myself as I fell backwards, and the Houndooms jaws wrapped around them.

All I could feel was pain; the feeling of my muscle being torn, the heat of the embers of fire dancing in the Houmdooms mouth. I screamed as the Houndoom shook viciously, blood splattering in all directions.

"Leo, go!"

Suddenly the Houndoom was gone, tacked from the side. Someones arms wrapped around me and dragged me to my feet. I looked to see a Luxray fighting with the Houndoom. It was obvious who the winner was; the luxray was much larger and had the advantage of surprise. It was currently pinning down the Houndoom, jaws firmly clamped on the back if it's neck. The Houndoom let out a whimper, clearly defeated, before disappearing in a blaze of red energy.

The man was bent over, holding his side and grimacing in pain. The Luxray let out a warning growl as he reached for another pokeball.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" said the voice holding me up. It was a female voice, strong and confident. Thank Mew someone knew what they were doing. Maybe we could get to a Pokemon centre, that way Bo would be okay. Bo had to be okay. I wasn't going to lose her in my first battle. I couldn't lose my starter.

The girl behind me stepped forward, letting me stand shakily on my own two feet. She pulled out a pokeball and released an Alakazam. They stared intently at each other for a few moments, before the Alakazam made a small nod and disappeared, reappearing besides the man. He let out a small cry, and tried to scramble away, but was cut short as the Alakazam grabbed him and they both vanished.

And with that I learnt just how cruel the world could be.


End file.
